In announcing the party’s education and schools platform for the Nov. 15 election, LaPointe said the NPA will also explore renting out excess space to child care providers, and would encourage funding partnerships that would help relieve the school board’s constant financial problems.

He criticized the current Vision Vancouver-led school board for turning its back on funding when it doesn’t like where it comes from.

“The Vision school board chair has turned down almost $500,000 in grants to support kids because the sources didn’t fit its rigid ideological views,” he said. “An NPA school board will not be bound by ideology that shortchanges our kids.”

LaPointe cited a case in which the school board rejected a donation of microscopes from Chevron because it didn’t want to accept a corporate donation, although the company’s offer was accepted in other school districts.

“That is a denial that other children in other districts now have. They have their microscopes, and ours don’t,” he said.

With enrolment declining in Vancouver public schools — at least 3,000 fewer children are enrolled this year than in 2008 — the school board has faced enormous pressure to maintain its staffing and education curriculum. It has looked at closing partly filled schools as a cost-cutting measure and moving students to nearby schools.

LaPointe said that won’t happen under the NPA. “We will not close schools. But we will have a plan to make sure they stay open viably,” he said.

“We need to be much more creative in finding ways to have these schools stay open. So one way we feel is important is child care providers,” he said. “There might be other uses there for others (such as) continuing education.”

He said such programs cannot interrupt the board of education’s mandate to provide public schooling, but could provide needed financial support to the district.

He drew the line at schools being used by corporate, commercial or religious organizations that would be out keeping with public institution policies.

“I wouldn’t anticipate that happening. I think there are other providers that would be far more at the front of the line,” he said.

Vision Vancouver school board chairwoman Patti Bacchus almost immediately launched a broadside at the NPA and the rejected Chevron “Fuel Your Schools” deal.

“This funding was contingent on Chevron being able to directly interfere with teachers and lesson plans. The NPA’s Mr. LaPointe and his school board candidates seem to think that turning to oil companies to fund our schools is the way to improve public education,” Bacchus said in a statement.

“What’s next? McDonald’s teaching nutrition? With Vision, parents know we will be strong advocates for public schools and support student achievement.”

Chevron representative Adrien Byrne said its program, undertaken with a Canadian non-profit crowdfunding foundation, is being unfairly politicized by Vision Vancouver.

“Chevron is a non-partisan organization, and retains a neutral perspective on civic politics in Vancouver. However, it is disappointing that Vision Vancouver has chosen to deliberately politicize and misrepresent a Chevron program, and Chevron’s offer for funding classroom resources in Vancouver, in a party news release today,” he said.

The Chevron program is funding 140 teachers’ projects in five school districts. The NPA outlined four broad promises around its education plan:

Keep neighbourhood schools open despite declining enrolment;

Cut the annual number of district closure days from seven to five;

Give better access to learning-assessment programs to help non-English-speaking families;

Expand Mandarin dialect courses, offering electives at all secondary schools and doubling to four the number of Mandarin bilingual schools

NPA candidate Christopher Richardson, a former park board commissioner now running for school board, said the school district has cut the number of instructional days from 187 in 2008 to 180 this year, not including the recent labour disruption.

“The NPA, after listening to teachers and parents, believes that offering more full instruction days are better for teachers, kids and parents than a few extra minutes tacked on to the end of every school day,” he said.

“If those seven lost days were added up over a student’s 13 years in the school system, they add up to 91 days — almost a half-year of instruction.”

In response to a reporter’s question, LaPointe said the district days are not covered in the teachers’ collective agreement and are at the discretion of the school board.

Vision Vancouver has not yet released its full education election platform, but has already said it would commit up to $2.4 million to build child care spaces in as many as 40 schools as they undergo provincially funded seismic upgrades. It has said in doing so the city could create nearly 1,000 child care spaces, all of which would still need operational funding.

In its response to the NPA plan, Vision said the current board “has kept public schools open, despite pressure from the NPA to close them and sell off property. “

It said it had also “created a new Mandarin bilingual program at Norquay elementary, secured more than $200 million in new upgrades for Vancouver public schools and expanded the VSB’s international student program,” as well as presiding over a 14-per-cent improvement in First Nations student graduation rates.

Is there more to this story? We'd like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. CLICK HERE or go to vancouversun.com/moretothestory

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Share

Vancouver NPA school board slate pledges to stop school closures, increase instruction time

Video

Today's Headline Videos

Best of Postmedia

To steel himself for the year-long journey that began Wednesday, Jonathan Pitre has been going over the hard calculus that underpins his decision to pursue a high-risk, high-reward treatment in Minnesota

When he woke up in tears the morning after he had cried himself to sleep, Rohit Saxena knew what he had to do. Leaving his wife, Lesley, asleep in bed, Rohit went downstairs, opened his laptop and began to write. “They say your kids are your hearts outside your body,” he wrote. “I’ll always be […]

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.